And yet, as I’ve grown older, I find my “U.S.A.!”-chanting reflex increasingly interrupted by pangs of discomfort... In short, chanting the initials of our nation seems less like it did in 1984 than it has since 1992.

And what happened in these two formative years that so consume Mr. Sirota?

This was precisely the purpose of the ’84 Olympics — it was a one-sided showcase of American superiority.”
Then came the 1992 games — the first after the fall of the Berlin Wall. America was at its geopolitical and economic zenith, able to claim the title of “world’s sole superpower.” But instead of projecting a ray of humility in the “with-great-power-comes-great-responsibility” spirit, we instead used the Olympics to spike the ball in the end zone — or, more accurately, 360 windmill dunk over the rest of the planet.

Sirtoa gives us undistilled liberal truth here: Losing to a lesser foe is a more moral outcome than a triumph by a superior athlete. Apply if to economics - Solyndra as superior to Big Oil, food stamps as preferable to a business you didn't build - and you see why we are living in a never-ending Great Recession.

Sirtoa goes on to explain to us why, in reality, America sucks:

Missed in the ensuing red-white-and-blue hoopla, of course, is the fact that we are not so exceptional outside the Olympic village....
For instance, we are not gold, silver or even bronze medalists when it comes to healthcare; sadly, we are 39th for infant mortality, 43rd for female mortality, 42nd for adult male mortality and 36th for life expectancy. Likewise, we are not champions when it comes to basic equality; we are one of the most economically unequal nations in the industrialized world....

All demonstrably false, of course, but when does that stop a liberal from spouting it and Salon from printing it?
The mask is off, and now Sirtoa goes nuts:

In this sense, the shrieks of “USA!” for our athletes take on a “doth protest too much” quality. Our shiny medallions and our patriotic braying reassure us that, despite our slipping world standing, we at least still kick international ass in the competition that gets the highest Nielsen ratings...As if deliberately perpetuating the cycle, our Olympic victories — and celebrations of those wins — then (wrongly) convince us of our ongoing superiority, while robbing those weaker nations of any wins that might give them a fleeting feeling of self-empowerment or sovereignty against us. In other words, we are further distracted, and they further emasculated by us militarily, economically, geopolitically and, every four years, athletically.

Sirtoa,in a nutshell: We need to stop rooting for our mean, shitty little nation. We make other people feel bad by not losing to them, and they might like us less. We are nothing more than a nation of "shrieking, braying" idiots, and we have more to be ashamed of than proud of.

But don't you dare question his patriotism.

BTW, 21 year-old Kayla Harrison - gold medalist for Team USA Woman's Judo - is the kind of person he is ashamed to root for: